Deaths in Iraq preventable
Noah Shachtman at
DefenseTech links to a stunningly bad bit of news regarding coalition fatalities in Iraq. According to a
story in Newseek:
bq. A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, of a total of 789 Coalition deaths as of April 15 (686 of them Americans), 142 were killed by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them, the study suggested. Thousands more who were unprotected have suffered grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs.
The article goes on to say:
bq. The military is 1,800 armored Humvees short of its own stated requirement for Iraq. Despite desperate attempts to supply bolt-on armor, many soldiers still ride around in
light-skinned Humvees.
We had a year or two where we knew that we were going over there and that getting rid of Islamofascism would not be an overnight operation. Who was it that dropped the ball and what is being done now to counteract this.
Posted by DaveH at April 26, 2004 4:39 PM